Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Let's Save Money!

Do you get the Sunday Paper?
yes



Do you use coupons?
yes



Do you like to SAVE MONEY??
Yes






Now…if you answered YES to all of the above (like me)….did you know you could save even more money by purchasing MULTIPLE Sunday papers???
YES!!!





Well you can.
Ask your local paper if you can receive more papers and possibly get a discount.



Nik and I are signed up to get FIVE
(yes, 5 from the same company)
Newspapers EVERY Sunday!




It is like Christmas morning every Sunday Morning.
We look outside our front door and see 5 red plastic baggies
with Newspapers in them.


Inside those Newspapers are COUPONS!
Oh….what happiness!!





See….
Before November I had NO idea you could order multiple papers to get multiple coupons for the same product.
I had NO IDEA! You know what that means…MULTIPLE opportunities to save on one item and stock up. Can you say AWESOME?!
I can!





So…
Now when there is a good deal on something that I have a coupon for…
I can now get 5 of that item and start storing more in my Food Storage!





Let me tell you a story:


Nik and I got married in the summer and after a few months of grocery bills…we realized that other than Rent Payments, those receipts for groceries were our biggest monthly expense.

One of two things needed to happen:
1) Starve
or
B) Save Money





We decided that starving wouldn’t be the best of ideas…so we went and bought a 3-ring zipper binder, baseball card pages, and dividers.
We then subscribed to the newspaper and started getting one Sunday paper each week.
That was great and we saved $13 (out of $127) on our first majorly-focused trip to the grocery store.
We were excited!
$13 is like a movie and popcorn
or
half-a-shirt!
(lol)





This went on for a few months and we would save a few bucks here and there…then in November came the BEST Relief Society Activity EVERRRRR
How to Clip Coupons and Budget!
I was SOOO excited to go there and learn how to save us some money!





WHO wants to spend all their money on food??
I’d rather spend money on 
home décor
or
clothing
or
shoes
or
movies
or
go on a FANCY DATE with Nikolas!
Food??
All you do is buy food, eat it, and buy some more.
DUMB but important, I guess.





Becky, the Coupon Genius in my ward that taught the class, gave us some great tips and to go check out our local newspaper’s Savvy Shopper, Amy. I went home that night and looked her up online. It showed Amy having a seminar at the hotel right next to our apartment that upcoming Tuesday.
I was STOKED!
I signed up and that night the two of us went to learn how to save money!!!






The Savvy Shopper, Amy, was GREAT!
She was funny and kept the class alive.
Everyone in the class was so shocked by her money-saving stories and techniques.
With our eyes wide open and jaws dropped to the floor in disbelief/excitement we all scribbled down notes and vowed to never pay full price for an item again!
Going to that class allowed us to get a discount when we order up to 5 Sunday papers.
We pay $18.75 each month to get 20-25 newspapers
(depending on the number of Sundays in the month).
It is AWESOME!






So…we have had many great weeks with our grocery bills.
I get excited for Wednesdays when the new grocery ads come in the mail
and
Sundays when the retail stores and coupons come in the paper.





This is how my week goes –
Sunday: new coupons come to my doorstep for me to clip and organize in my binder.
Wednesday: new grocery ads come in the mail for me to browse and circle with a permanent marker what deals are good for us to buy.
Saturday: I make my shopping list of what he need for meals the next week and what we can stock up and put away in our Food Storage.
Nik and I then go shopping
(it’s always great as a team that way we don’t over spend or get something we don’t need or so we don’t overlook a great un-advertised deal)
and we try to get the most we can with our $25 Grocery Budget.
It has been a ton of fun…especially because we make such a great team!





Now, the best week we have had so far was this last Saturday.
Let me lay out my savings and maybe you will join me in the
Coupon Clipping Fun.





Toiletries (we bought Shampoo, Conditioner, Toilet Paper, and Hairspray):

Pre-savings Total: $43.76

Spent: $27.52

Saved: $17.08

Percent Saved: 39%

# Items Purchased: 20





Groceries (Too many to list…oh and some name brand stuff for FREE):

Pre-savings Total: $99.65

Spent: $34.59

Saved: $68.22

Percent Saved: 68%

# Items Purchased: 52

*Now,
we DID go over our budget for the week
but the prices were
too good
to not get the items at that time.
ESPECIALLY since they were name brand…
and cheaper than the Store brand.




Let me lay out some of the best deals from that day.

 Honey Bunches of Oats (Family Size).
Originally $4.50
Purchased for $1.18
(We got 12 boxes. Heck yes! Some for Food Storage and some for every day use.)

Bumblebee Tuna Cans.
Originally $0.69
Purchased for $0.33
(We got a few stacks of those. Tuna is a cheap staple food for us right now.)

Pasta
(Don’t remember the name but it WAS name brand and not generic. BONUS!)
Originally $0.99
Purchased for $0.50
(Another easy and cheap staple we both love!)
(THE BEST DEAL!)...
Bumblebee Single Serve Tuna Pouch
FREE!!!







I was/still am SOO HAPPY with our shopping trip!
We saved sooo much money and stocked up our pantries really well.
All that money we saved could go to bigger and better things.

LOATHE spending money on food because it feels like it’s ALWAYS GONE!

This makes me feel better about spending money on food.
Yay!

Anybody can do this and save money just like me!

*Call me CRAZY...
but saving money is
AWESOME!
I'm sure if you tried it...you'd be hooked.

9 comments:

Amy Legler said...

My mom and I have an ongoing competition to see who can get a higher saving % at the store. We text each other when we have an awesome shopping trip. My mom always wins, but I'm working on it. It's not at all uncommon for her to save WAY more than she spends. She leaves the cashier and everyone else drooling over her savings!

Kimber said...

i've totally been thinking lately that i should look into trying to coupon clip etc, and this post may have inspired me to finally do so! do you do all your shopping at one store or have to go around to multiple ones?

Nik and Dawna said...

Thanks ladies!
Amy - I have my mom hooked too! I can't wait to move back home and share tips and coupons and shopping time together.
Kimber - I look through all the ads and write down the good prices on a list. Then I decide which stores have the best value to my time. Usually it is Smith's and either Macey's or Fresh Market or Buy Low. Those 3 stores usually have the same deals. Rarely do I ever go to WalMart anymore. If you would like to come check out my system, you can! Or go online to the Savvy Shopper Deals and go to her class!

Melissa said...

James and I go to like 3 different grocery stores in one day to get the best deals. I write it all down of what we need where. I love it.

Emily Warren said...

Saving money is probably one of my favorite things! I especially love to brag about them afterwards cause I am always so proud of myself. I love going to mysavings.com to get all sorts of free samples in the mail and most of the time you get coupons with the samples too! It is fabulous cause one who doesn't love getting mail and two you get free stuff. Also since you can never have too many coupons you can try out smartsource.com. Hope this helps you save some more money.

Leslie said...

Good for you Dawna!

curtis and jacque dana said...

Hey Dawna! We had the exact same RS activity a few weeks ago! I was hooked until I noticed how stinkin expensive the papers would be. Has it evened out in the end? Good for you for diving in!

Nik and Dawna said...

Hey Jacque - We pay $18.75 each month and the coupon savings always pay for that and THEN some! In one week I save atleast $10-$20...so that is a minimum of $40 saved in a month. We find it to be totally worth it. This last weekend DEFINITELY paid for it.
It does take a couple weeks to build up the coupon stash...but that is good to ease yourself into it.
Try it out and let me know what you think!

The Lamb Family said...

I have been doing this for over a year now and it is the best. I have saved as mush as $100.00 in coupons once at the store. If you take all of the deals to Walmart and ad match and use the coupon, it is the best. This way it is a one stop shop.